Personal selling plays a critical role in the promotion of health services organizations. Perhaps most obviously, it is distinguished from its counterparts in the marketing communications mix by its use of people to deliver messages to desired audiences. Associated titles, duties, and expectations vary widely between and among those healthcare entities which make use of personal selling, as there is no pat formula for deployment within health services environments. To shed light on personal selling, this article presents an associated overview through the lens of Willis-Knighton Health System, sharing practical insights and experiences which can assist peer healthcare establishments in understanding, shaping, and honing sales roles within their own facilities.
When one thinks about marketing communications in the healthcare industry, very often images of billboard advertisements, television commercials, direct mail parcels, and similar conveyances come to mind. This perspective is not surprising given the prominence and persistence of these promotional avenues, especially when driven intensively by health and medical establishments in an effort to reach target audiences. But less obvious communication pathways also exist, with one of these being personal selling which involves the use of sales agents to personally deliver messages to target audiences. The notion of the sales representative often evokes images of occupations far removed from the health services environment, but sales roles indeed exist in health services establishments and they are very important.
Personal selling is deployed in many different ways across the health services industry, with implementation characteristics being dependent on the missions called for by given healthcare providers. Roles are often titled discreetly to reduce the overly commercial tone of descriptors such as sales representative or sales agent, opting instead for titles that are softer, such as community liaison, business development officer, and so on. Regardless of title, such roles involve personally interacting with desired audiences to compel some sort of action, adding a vital form of communication that bolsters opportunities to engage audiences.
Nursing homes, for example, are dependent on referrals from families, hospitals, social services agencies, and other establishments in their given markets. In pursuing these referrals, personal selling often is used, with representatives calling on sources, seeking to encourage associated patronage. Without personal, direct contact, referrals would dwindle and the livelihoods of given nursing homes would be in jeopardy. Personal selling agents working on behalf of more diversified healthcare entities, like major hospitals, often have broader outreach-related roles. They, for example, might be called upon to engage referral sources, attend community events as representatives of their given healthcare establishments, provide informative presentations about the health services of their institutions at civic clubs and other venues, meet with politicians and other dignitaries to discuss community health matters, and so on. Those engaged in personal selling play critical roles which positively contribute to the overall communications strategies of healthcare providers.
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